SUSAN, BILLY, AND GHOSTLY SPIRITS
By Sandy Nichols
Back when I was around fifteen or sixteen, I was awakened in the middle of the night by a male voice talking to me though I was alone in my bedroom. I should have been scared, but I wasn't. Since early childhood anomalous experiences had become an integral part of my life. Normally I would have written this voice off to just another strange and unexplained experience, but this one was unique. This was not a voice that seemed to emanate from a disembodied presence in the room, but had actually melded with my conscious and subconscious thoughts. In other words, I was not actually hearing a physical voice through normal hearing, but through words actually embedded into my thought pattern. In this way we were able to communicate with each other just by thinking what we wanted to say. This process is very similar to the way the "ET type Beings" communicate with me during many of my abduction experiences. I believe it is a form of ESP or some other type of psychic telepathy. I share in my book "Different Child," "that the beings seem to know my thoughts before I even think of them!" Whatever the method is used, it is a very efficient way of communication.
As the next few minutes passed the voice asked me to call him "Billy." Billy went on to share with me that he was from a realm and a time that was not completely aware of on my present level of existence. I wondered if he was referring to a past life of mine either here on earth or on another planet or even in another dimensional state. Knowing what I was thinking, he shared that I would know in time, and that I was chosen for who I was. He went on to share that he was there to protect me. With a Catholic upbringing at the time I wondered if he was my "guardian angel." Though I could not see his physical face I could feel a smile radiating from him. My impression was that this was not who he was, but for the time being,, for my peace of mind, this answer would suffice.
As the weeks and months passed I became very comfortable having Billy around. I could feel his presence constantly, but not in an invasive or smothering way. Though I still managed to inflict on myself an assortment of minor bumps, bruises and scrapes, Billy saved me fro major physical harm from youthful indiscretions on more than one occasion. For reasons I did not understand at the time, I felt compelled to share my unique relationship with Billy to others. It did not take long for strange looks to be bounced back my way, and at work I became the poster boy for some good natured ribbing such as asking me what I had for breakfast that morning... "Boo Berry's or Ghost Toasty's?" I have always had an excellent sense of humor, and I took the ribbing in stride, though some people began to question my sanity. It became quite obvious to me at that early age that generally anything not endorsed as a truth by science and/or religion verged on a delusional fantasy or a heresy. I began to question the wisdom of my sharing until some years later when I received a phone call from a distant relative I had not seen in 10 years. Susan.
To say the least I was totally surprised by her call. She lives just a couple of hours away in another city but we rarely saw each other. So I was perplexed as to why she would suddenly want to communicate with me. Susan would not elaborate on the phone the reason for the call, and asked, but more like persisted, that I visit her in the very near future. She stressed the importance of this visit and said she would explain all when I arrived. Having no prior plans for the next day, we arranged for my arrival at her home the next morning around ten. Her enthusiasm that I could visit so soon echoed through the phone. I had no idea what was so important to get her so excited about seeing me. When I arrived she was home alone, having taken a six month leave of absence from work because of her third pregnancy. I inquired as to how she was feeling an how things were going in her life. She replied that as far as the physical part of the pregnancy was concerned she was feeling fine, but she was having a hard time dealing with something else. She then asked me if Billy was still around. Billy??????
I told her "Yes!" and asked her "Why?"
I was startled to say the least that Susan began our visit by asking about Billy. It was not a secret in my family that most of my relatives, including the distant ones, believed that I was a little "touched" or just looking for attention. I assumed that Susan felt the same way until she shared with me that day in a very open way. When all was said and done and I was driving home, I knew that there was purpose in me sharing my strange experiences with others. Susan was in the throes of some very strange and disturbing experiences that had begun to manifest early in this pregnancy, and when she shared with her husband and others, no one believed her. Fearing that she was about to suffer a mental breakdown and worried about the safety of her unborn child, she called me with a desperate plea for help.
Susan's two previous pregnancies went off without a hitch. They were as normal as normal could be, and she had not been plagued by anything unusual. Looking at this third pregnancy from the view point based on her first two pregnancies, then this pregnancy should have progressed in a similar manner, but it didn't. The first indicator that something might be amiss came about two months into the pregnancy. Her husband, Larry, was at work when a lady from his office who claimed to to be "witch" approached him the later part of the day and gave Larry a warning, "Tell Susan to be careful with the new baby." Taken back, he asked the lady what she meant. She explained that she knew Susan was pregnant and that something evil was lurking around her. Larry was confused to say the least. He did not believe that his lady was a witch in the first place, but still wondered how she knew Susan was pregnant. Their children did not even know, and her immediate family was not informed until the third month.
Susan's experiences did not begin as gangbuster's and increase in intensity from there. Instead they began with a few innocuous experiences such as coat hangers falling off rods in the closets, boxes falling to the floor from shelves, hearing footsteps when only she was in the house, and the occasional bump in the night and (day) type of sounds. As with many other hauntings, the intensity and her resulting fear factor increased as she progressed further into her pregnancy.
At first Susan tried to ignore her experiences. Her beliefs would not allow her to think outside the box. She entered a state of denial and wrote off each experience to a status quo explanation. As the experiences continued she decided to conduct an experiment. She replaced only a fallen box to the very back of the shelf knowing that something would have to literally push the box off of the shelf. She also bent the hook of several wire coat hangers inward before replacing them back on the hanger rod. The results were the same and startling at the same time. Only the box she had placed at the back of the shelf, and only the coat hangers that had the bent hooks were on the floor the next day. It was at this point that she believed that something intelligent was messing with hr life. She wondered why, except for one single occasion, it was messing with her alone and no other family member.
There was no doubt in my mind that something else was transpiring in Susan's life besides just hormonal changes. My mother and father always spoke very highly of her, and her marriage and family life seemed very happy and secure. No one had ever accused her of being delusional, deliberately lying or even suffering from hallucinations. She may have been going through hormonal changes, but these changes could not explain boxes and coat hangers deliberately crashing to the floor. I felt as if something else was afoot....something on the ghostly realm and possibly pushing the boundary of evil intent.
As the morning blended into the afternoon I began to ask Susan questions about her past. I wanted to see if she had had any other strange experiences in her life. She was positive nothing out of the ordinary had occurred, and things only started getting strange about the time she became pregnant. I then asked her to look back at that specific time and tell me if anything unexpected had occurred that she was involved in. She said that the only thing she could think of was that her aged grandmother could no longer take care of herself and went to live with a daughter in another state. The only personal possessions that she desired were her clothes and a bible. The rest of the possessions in her house had already been earmarked to be sold a a bulk lot, except for one bed frame and a mattress and box springs. These items belonged to her sister who had lived with her for years. Her sister had passed away some years earlier, and she wanted these items to go to her favorite grand-niece who lived half way across the country. These items were never shipped though, because the shipping charge was an amount the grand-niece could not afford. Instead, with no objections from any other family member, Susan and her husband claimed the bed plus two old chests that had been gathering dust in the attic. With this new piece of the puzzle revealed, it appeared that the bed was at least playing a part in her experiences. Now I needed to know what items were stored in the two chests. It would not be the first time that a haunting had manifested because of a ghostly spirit's strong attachment to an inanimate object. Couple this with the knowledge that her aunt's wishes were not adhered to, then a haunting scenario may have been inadvertently umped started.
The chests were similar in appearance and probably bought around the same time if not at the same time. They were rectangular in shape and flat on all sides. They had a flip down bracket in the middle that could be secured with a simple padlock. The amount of dust on each chest hinted strongly that they had not been opened or even moved for years. Inside the chests were the typical items that people might store as treasured keepsakes... old clothes, lace doilies and handkerchiefs, a tin containing jewelry, quilted blanket, various other knick knacks and some very old letters dating back to the Civil War. he Civil War letters were interesting from a family point of view. The letters indicated that the author was a relative by marriage by the name of Jordan who was a Confederate Cavalry Captain and who married a lady named Mary Nichols. Was this just a coincidence or another example of history repeating itself?
There was one other item found in one of the chests. It was a box that on the outside resembled a very ornate book. Inscribed on the front lid/cover were the words "Memories of Mother." Inside the box were a few photos, a thimble and a lock of hair. Since Susan's grandmother and great-aunt were sisters and had lived together for years, then we believed that the chests were owned by both ladies.
A good many of Susan's experiences occurred while she was in or near the bed. By this time she had drawn the conclusion that the mischievous spirit was her aunt. She believed that she was singled out by her or a specific reason... that by being a mother and pregnant she would be more sympathetic to her aunt's wishes. She was sympathetic to her aunt, and did not believe she was being malicious. It just did not fit her nature. She was very much loved by everyone with nary a bad word spoken about her. The home she shared with her sister became the sleepover spot of choice for all of the grandchildren. Since children are very perceptive, then this one fact alone convinced me that neither sister was a bad person. Susan tried to explain that she would have paid the shipping cost, but the impending birth of her new child made this impossible. Apparently this did not satisfy her aunt for the strange happenings continued.
From what I had learned so far, I believed that Susan was on the right track, but I felt that there was another piece to this puzzle. I then asked myself a simple question, "Cold there be more than one spirit interacting with Susan at the same time?" Everything seemed to indicate that the contents of the two chests contained the spiritual energy of at least three other souls.. a mother to the two sisters, a soldier at war and a wife at home alone. Many psychics have zeroed in on several spirits active at the same time in the same location. Depending on the circumstances of their death,some could be benign in nature while others might have a malicious or malevolent demeanor about them. Since I knew the least about Captain Jordan and his personality, I directed my focus toward him. Part of my reasoning was based on a visual sighting of a tall, dark figure seen by her oldest son during this time frame.
Susan's oldest son who was still a young child himself at the time, awakened in the middle of the night with the urge to urinate. The bathroom was just a few short steps down the hallway from his bedroom. As he made his way across the room he noticed a dark, human like figure standing in the hallway just outside of his bedroom door. This figure was very tall, almost the height of the door opening itself. It did not move or make a threatening gesture toward him, though it still frightened him. A few seconds later the dark figure just vanished.
Susan wondered who this dark figure could have been as well. It was definitely not her great aunt... much too tall. Could it have been Captain Jordan? His letters were of a loving nature to his wire, but his words also echoed the loneliness and torment of a soldier at war. It was not implausible to speculate that Captain Jordan may have perished in that dreadful war,, and that his spirit was still searching for its final rest. A quick genealogy search turned up very little information. His personality was an enigma yet to be discovered.
For a few moments I was silent, enmeshed within my own thoughts, pondering all of the information I knew about a haunting. It was obvious to me that Susan and her husband had opened a portal to another dimensional reality. I wondered if by doing so something less friendly had slipped through as well.
The bed that was once her great-aunt's, was now par of Susan's master bedroom suite. As she sleepily placed her feet on the warmth of the carpet below, she could not help but feel a bit apprehensive. Her sleep had been fitful, and her dreams of darkness filled with an eerie silence. She felt an unseen presence beside her; its stare transfixed upon her. In the preceding months she had grown accustomed to feeling it around, but not like this. On this morning it felt different somehow, more ominous and foreboding. She hoped that she was wrong, but her premonition was soon to be proven true.
Susan had decided from the beginning not to let any unfounded paranoia lead her life. She had responsibilities that needed to be dealt with, and she surely did not want to scare her children. She continued on with her daily routine, enmeshed in the busyness of her schedule. As each hour passed the feelings had lessened, and by the time she sat down to supper with her family she had all but forgotten them. After dinner she helped the children with their homework, and then cuddled with her husband on the couch. Around 10pm she kissed him goodnight and retired to the bedroom at the other end of the house. After a relaxing soak in the tub, she put on her nightgown and crawled into bed.
Susan did not know how long she had been asleep when she awakened with the covers pulled off of her, and the realization that someone was crawling into bed with her. She felt the foot of the bed giving way to the weight of a naked body pressing down upon her feet. Slowly hands began to caress her legs and then move up to her thighs. She called out her husband's name, believing that he suddenly had an urge to snuggle, but there was no reply. She called out again, and was answered only by the silence of the night. By now the naked feel of a body was to her waist. She stared into the darkness, room illuminate only by the ambient light filtering in through the curtains on the windows. She should have been able to see someone, but no one was there. If this was her husband playing a trick on her, he had gone too far. Fear now had her firmly in its grasp, and she screamed. Immediately the pressure upon her body was gone, and she jumped out of bed. Through the closed bedroom door she hard the hurried steps of feet running down the hall. She dared not move. The door opened, and in burst her husband.
Her experiences had changed dramatically. As long as her experiences were limited to haring strange noises, items crashing to the floor in closed closets and only having a gut feeling that something was in the house, she felt she could deal with it on her own. But what happened the night before caused genuine fear to well up inside of her. A ghostly spirit had invaded the sanctity of her marriage bed, and she dreaded to think of the consequences had she not screamed. She thought of calling me but decided against it. This experience was so bizarre she wondered if even I would believer her. Her decision not to call was not a wise one. Two weeks later she wished that she had called that day.
There was one thing that needed to be done before the baby arrived. This expense had been figured into the family budget long before Susan became pregnant. Now with the due date nearing, the home needed to be painted before the baby arrived. The entire interior of the home was supposed to be finished in two weeks or less. To expedite the work, all of the furniture in the room being painted as transferred to the living room. This meant that each family member would sleep in the living room for the duration until their particular room was finished. To save some time and effort, they decided not to reassemble the bed frames in the living room. They simply laid the mattress and box springs of each bed on the floor in the middle of the room. The children loved this It would be like camping out, but without the hassle of getting bitten by bugs. For the next two weeks everything went as smoothly as could be expected. There was now only one room left to be painted... the master bedroom.
Right before Susan lay down on the mattress she stood in silence and said a little prayer of thanks. She had not had one experience since the painting began. It did not matter to her why they had ceased, she was only grateful that they had. As she lowered herself down on the mattress and pulled the covers over her, she moved closer to her husband. She felt his gentle strength as he wrapped an arm around her. She had always felt safe and secure in his arms.
A thump on the mattress awakened Susan from her sound sleep. No longer was her husband embracing her, and his snoring alerted her to the fact that the thump had not disturbed him. As her eyes cleared she began to discern what appeared to be 12 to 15 humanoid shaped figures gathered around the mattress. They were small in stature, 3 to 4 feet in height, shadows where facial features should have been, and they were dull, white in color almost to the point of glowing. Was this just an illusion, or were they emitting their own internal light source?
Susan did not feel threatened, nor did they make any threatening move toward her, though she still felt fear. She refused to look behind her, and as she had tried several times before during other experiences, she could not awaken her husband. From all the research that had been done, this is really not an uncommon thing to happen. In some way not understood, the non-affected party is essentially placed in a catatonic state during the experience. When the person awakens some time later, the usually declare that they had had a very restful sleep.The afternoon was winding down as Susan finished sharing and began asking me questions about Billy. She knew that I had shared that Billy was my protector, and she wanted to know if I could lend Billy to her to possibly help her. I was a bit taken back by her request, and I felt a small sense of vindication from years of sharing, though I needed to keep in mind that Susan had called me out of a sense of desperation.
Whatever the reason did not matter. I believed Susan and she needed my help, and that is what I would do. I could not promise that Billy would help her. That would be totally up to him. If he agreed, then I would send him at a date in the near future, but I would not inform her what date that would be. I felt that this would be best. She was pregnant, and hormonal changes can affect women in strange ways. A good researcher explores all possibilities regardless of what his gut is telling him. If I was right in my original assessment, and Billy was able to help her, then the results should point to a genuine interaction of ghostly spirits upon Susan's world. Now all I had t do was to have patience and wait for Susan's call.
Almost a month and half had passed when I received another call from Susan. The first thing she said was that I had sent Billy to her. I answered in the affirmative, and asked her if she knew what date I had sent Billy. She shared that she continued to feel the negative entity in her home after I had left, and had some minor experiences. then exactly on the tenth day she awakened and she knew that Billy was there. She said that she would have called me sooner, but she wanted to be sure that she was free of the negative spirit. I told her that Billy would stay with her until her new baby arrived. She then thanked me for believing and helping her when no one else would.
I did not have to hear Susan confirm that Billy had helped her, because I received confirmation from another source. When Billy had vanquished her spirits, they decided to pay me a visit the following night. I awakened in the middle of the night to find a few of Susan's, little glowing buddies around my bed, and standing behind them the tall dark figure. Apparently they were a little pissed at me and decided I would be their next victim. Interacting with strange beings was nothing new for me, and so their presence did not really bother me... plus the fact that I was still under the protection of Billy. I still cannot explain it to this day, but somehow Bill was still around me at the same time he was around Susan.
Susan had her baby a few months later, a healthy baby girl, and never had any more personal experiences, but the same could not be said for another member of her family.
About three years later Susan gave birth to her last child, a boy. By this time Susan and her husband had purchased a new bedroom suite and placed her aunt's bed in storage. It remained there until her youngest son turned three and was used as his bed. A few months later her son who had always had good sleeping habits, began awakening in the middle of the night screaming. Susan would rush in to see what was wrong, and would have a hard time calming him down. After another month of this strange behavior, Susan took her son to a specialist. He was diagnosed as having "Night Terror Dreams." He was prescribed medicine, but Susan knew that this would not help. When she returned home she dismantled the bed and placed in their basement. From that moment on her home had been totally free of strange happenings. A few weeks later the bed, mattress and box springs were sold uring a garage sale.
WHAT HAPPENED TO BILLY?
Over the years friends have often asked me if Billy is still around, and the answer is always, "Oh year!" but with an explanation.
Billy was not just a protector, Bill was a teacher and mentor as well. In my younger days when Billy first came to me, I was a naive little boy whose lack of understanding and knowledge was a determent to my spiritual, emotional and mental growth. Bil taught me I had a special place and a special purpose in the universe. Over time I grew in wisdom, understanding and knowledge, and was entrusted with the responsibility to share and help others. Every night I pray to my Higher Power that my words are true, and I am doing that which I feel I was predestined to do.
"Yes, Billy is still around" but I believe he is with others as well. I feel that he is secure in the knowledge that he had taught me well, and so therefore could let me float free among the stars and accomplish those things that I must do. And I too feel secure in the knowledge that if I should ever find myself in a situation where I need his wisdom and guidance, he would be there for me.
Sandy Nichols
